Svalbard: Halfway Between Norway and the North Pole

Svalbard is a Norwegian group of islands located in the Arctic Ocean north of continental Norway, about 650 miles (1,050 kilometers) from the North Pole. It is the northernmost year-round settlement on Earth, with a population of about 2,200. Recently, Svalbard has been trying to move its economy more toward tourism and scientific research, and away from coal mining, which supported much of the economy since the early 20th century. Tourist visits to Svalbard have been steadily rising, with amazing views and abundant wildlife—especially the polar bears—drawing visitors from around the world.

Alexander Romanovskiy, the Russian guard of the abandoned Russian mining settlement of Pyramiden, poses on July 19, 2015, in Pyramiden, on the Svalbard archipelago. Pyramiden was bought by the Soviet Union in 1927 from the Swedish founders of the coal mine, and abandoned in 1998 after the mine's closure. It once housed 1,200 Russians and had hospital, a sports and culture center, and a movie theater. With much of its infrastructure still in place, efforts have been made since 2007 to make it a tourist attraction.#

Snow blows off the Svalbard Global Seed Vault before being inaugurated at sunrise on February 26, 2008. The “doomsday” seed vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars, and natural disasters opened deep within an Arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Starting with 200,000 samples when it opened, the vault has the capacity for around 4.5 million bar-coded seed samples in all.#

The mining outpost of Barentsburg, shown September 18, 1997, on Norway's remote Svalbard islands. The Soviet Union (later Russia) has been operating the mines here since 1932. Currently it is home to around 500 residents, almost entirely Russian and Ukrainian.#